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CBC Radio 2′s new direction appallingly off-key – Times Colonist
By kanei | September 5, 2008
Iain Hunter
September 3, 2008
The program director for CBC Radio had invited me, and everyone else in Canada, to tune into the corporation’s “new” Radio 2 yesterday, so I did — for about 18 seconds.
I couldn’t stick around long enough to learn what it was I was listening to, but if it was music, it had no charms to soothe this savage beast. Quite the contrary.
Rude words came to mind: “Pee, po, belly, bum, drawers,” I shouted, and twirled the dial … well, savagely.
I regard myself as fairly broad-minded. I tend to listen to classical music a lot, but I can take other kinds of noise in appropriate circumstances.
I’d expect to encounter jazz at jazz festivals, rock at rock concerts, what I understand as “rap” in bedlam. And motorcycle engines downtown and chainsaws in the bush.
Until now, I never expected this carelessly composed rubbish to be played over the national broadcasting corporation that has claimed to play some culturally significant role in all our lives.
Radio 2′s embrace of these mindless and meaningless forms, while shunting real music into the 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. time slot, is a national disgrace and an insult to anyone who appreciates the finer things in life.
Who is around to listen to the classics at this time?
There are no housewives any more, so it’s unlikely that any of them will be catching Khachaturian or hoovering to Haydn then.
Greasy guys in auto body shops will more likely be into heavy metal.
The CBC brass — and they’ve proved that they have got plenty of that — claim that they’re not simply trying to attract a younger audience, but are looking for new listeners of all ages.
Well, the national broadcaster is casting its net too far abroad. I’d like to think that those disheveled, bearded types will be sorry to know that I am one who has slipped through their net, though I’m sure they don’t give a damn.
I have scrubbed the pencil line that used to mark 105.7 FM off of my tuner. I will be content, from now on, with some of the excellent American stations that I can receive that still play the good stuff. Imagine, the America of George W. Bush, a source of culture.
For fine music, I’ll even put up with the banal advertisements, gubernatorial campaigning and mispronunciation that come with it.
Actually, though, I’ve been tuned to places like KING-FM in Seattle since jazz began insinuating itself into Radio 2 programming. And I’ve been delighted to encounter some music for the first time on this station.
I don’t know how many times, when I was a CBC devotee, that I had to gallop and swan about to Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony or endure each one of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.
I will miss, though, some of the presenters who made Radio 2 a special entertainment. Some of them have had a smarmy, squirming, peculiarly Canadian tone that I found objectionable, but Jurgen Gothe made it a lot of fun and I’ve missed, for more than a year, the generous honey tones of Danielle Charbonneau.
A real musical education was provided by such presenters as Jacob Siskind in his series on Mozart and Eric Friesen with pianist Emanuel Ax. Bob Kerr was full of sometimes enchanting information about works and performers, though when discussing sleeve notes he could be even grumpier than I’ve become.
The CBC professes to believe that classical music can appeal to “younger people.” If that’s so, why is it restricting it to hours of the day when so many of them are still in bed or terrorizing the neighbourhood on their skateboards?
The CBC knows very well that teenagers are plugged into all sorts of devices that fill their heads with music of their own choice on demand. If I let any of them near the car radio they punch buttons with increasing fury as they find that stations are playing stuff that isn’t to their oh-so-fleeting taste.
I understand that I could receive over my computer live concerts and rare recordings of classical music from the likes of the BBC, North German Radio and probably Al Jazeera. But I don’t know how to arrange that.
I know only how to twiddle a dial. Thanks to those misguided programmers at the CBC, I won’t be doing so much twiddling.
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